"The way I've gotten here is taking it one day and one competition at a time and having absolutely as much fun as I could, and, hey, it worked out," Bowman said.

It wasn't quite so simple. Bowman's competitors lauded her winning run as one of the most technical they had seen. And as her American teammates suffered some gnarly crashes, she put down two runs cleanly and improved her score.

After a first-run crash, Brita Sigourney slipped up late in her second run and was embraced by Bowman at the bottom of the halfpipe. By that point, with one skier to go and the lead comfortably hers, Bowman was assured of silver. Sigourney finished sixth. Before she could get her score, the two embraced.

"That was the best I've ever seen her ski," Sigourney said. "She's so funny. She said that she wanted me to win and that she's so proud of me. I told her to shut up because she deserves this more than anyone."

Sue and Bill Bowman didn't expect this. Yes, the former ski racers put their kids on skis early. Bowman started when she was 2, and younger brother Alec got on them even younger than that.

Mostly, they wanted their kids to enjoy what they did. Bowman caught the bug quickly.

When Maddie first started learning, her parents repurposed a springy pair of orange suspenders to serve as a leash. Bill Bowman was frugal, and, hey, it worked.

"They dragged me everywhere on that leash before I let them off of it," Sue Bowman said.

Maddie Bowman started ski racing at Sierra-at-Tahoe, her home mountain, but grew tired of that before she reached her teenage years.

Both of her parents had done it, although Sue says Bill was better than she was. He took a year off from college at Northern Michigan to move to Park City, Utah, and ski there. After winning a few races, including one in which he topped the University of Utah team, Bill returned to school.

Maddie Bowman's path to her Olympic win veered toward the halfpipe when at 12 she grew tired of ski racing.

"The racing was a little too structured for her, and a lot of standing around," Bill said.

By the time she was 15, Bowman's local mountain wanted to sponsor her. Sue Bowman began filling out the paperwork to enter her in Grand Prix events, and Bowman's success there got her invitations to the Dew Tour and eventually the X Games.

In her second time at the X Games, she took silver. She has won the past two gold medals in the halfpipe.

"When it turned serious for her, it didn't change who she was cause she's always just trying to have fun," says Alec, who is 17. "And now it's just a bonus because she gets to ski for her job."

Bowman entered the Olympics as the gold medal favorite after her success in the halfpipe the past two years. For her, the fun comes when she learns new tricks.

Her run in the finals showed that. A year ago at the X Games, she was still trying to perfect a rightside 900. She landed that in her winning run as part of back-to-back 900s.

It also included a switch 720, a new trick this year that requires her to ski up the halfpipe wall backward and land backward.

"It was the most technical run out of any girl skiing," Sigourney said. "It's more technical than any run any girl has done all year, plus it's got amplitude and style. She's just got it all."

As Bowman made the rounds with the news media, her parents recalled her journey here. Sue Bowman pulled out her phone to show a photo of Maddie in a pink snowsuit on her first day on skis, her second birthday.

Bill Bowman recalled the trampoline the family had just off their deck, one they couldn't keep Maddie off of once she started to walk. Amidst her bouncing around, she'd always tell her parents, "You missed it."

"She wanted to make sure we were watching her the whole time," Bill said.